ABC Sports executive producer Mike Pearl, overseeing how you see the NBA Finals, says he's "a very boring guy." In finishing his first year overseeing the network's sports coverage, the TV veteran faces interesting questions about where ABC goes from here.

He says Al Michaels and Doc Rivers, lead game announcers, have been "superb." But he'll have to replace Rivers, leaving to coach the Boston Celtics, and studio analyst Byron Scott, who'll coach the New Orleans Hornets.

Charles Barkley,whom Pearl worked with at TNT, would be a no-brainer. But Pearl, noting Barkley has two seasons to go at TNT, says even the idea Barkley would join ABC's Monday Night Football was "blown way out of proportion. It's not like I'm saying, 'Go break your contract.' "

Adding Bill Walton, now relegated to ESPN after calling NBA Finals on ABC and NBC, would make sense — even for cameos on the current Finals. The Hall of Famer's idiosyncratic takes can leave viewers speechless, and his son Luke plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. But on this series, Pearl says, Walton could only be "incorporated as a fan and father, not as a commentator."

Asked about studio analyst Tom Tolbert, who gives ABC welcome unpredictability, Pearl responds only with an overview: "In the studio, I never consider how one person works but how the group works."

TV rookies will get a look. "I've always believed in having people who've been recently involved in the game," Pearl says. "It's a matter of waiting to see which players retire or coaches are out of work."

P.S. In comments on race and the NBA on ESPN, Larry Bird said he was "irritated" at the "disrespect" of having a white player guard him. Tolbert, who averaged 6.5 points a game in seven NBA seasons, sometimes guarded Bird. Tolbert remembers hearing, from teammate Chris Mullin, that Bird was miffed at Tolbert's ethnicity: "But I never took offense. It went on all the time, among white guys and black guys."

Tolbert's take on the NBA's marquee team: "If the Lakers win, it would only be the fourth-best Laker team to win the title in the past five years."

New coach:

John Sawatsky was an investigative reporter, journalism professor and author of best-selling books that focused on topics such as politics and espionage. But he'll become a staffer at ESPN on June 21, though, as a Canadian, he doesn't watch it: "We don't get ESPN. It's our cultural protectionism."

Sawatsky didn't expect to work for Disney "in a million years." But ESPN executive editor John Walsh happened on a feature about "Canada's premier investigative reporter and foremost expert on interviewing" in the October 2000 issue of American Journalism Review. Having worked with 60 to 70 ESPN staffers as a consultant, Sawatsky will work with staffers in ESPN's TV, radio, online and print outlets.

ESPN's staffers report on sports the network paid millions to cover and even events the network owns. But Sawatsky says there are "always conflicts of interest" in media work. Besides, "Objectivity has never existed. The only thing you can do is disclose."

And some ESPN staffers are known to use on-air opportunities to try to draw attention to themselves. "The more famous somebody becomes, the more they step on their guests," he says. "That's what's happening with (NBC/HBO's) Bob Costas."

For ESPN staffers, an early Sawatsky tip: "There's only one star in an interview — and it's not you."

Oy:

College football's Bowl Championship Series can't be accused on kowtowing to TV — or even fans. The BCS announced Thursday changes for bowls that will follow the 2006 season. How's this for excitement? The two spots that will be added presumably will be for teams not good enough for the four current BCS bowls. And BCS bowl results still will have no effect on who gets to play in the national title game.

Brace for more controversial or inconclusive title matchups. But ABC, still interested in the BCS, is publicly stoic. Says ABC's Mark Mandel, "We don't have any authority in decisions about BCS formats."

Seriously:

ESPN Shorts are 90-second ad vignettes meant to be light and relatively subtle — they're simply injected into SportsCenter and the advertiser is only evident through product placement. They're equivalent to ad logos on athletes or cars because you're supposed to see them before you can channel surf during predictable ad breaks. "The envelope is being more than pushed," ESPN's Walsh says. "That's the way the world is today. But as (ex-ESPN head) Steve Bornstein used to tell me, 'Get used to it. Someday, (ads) will be on our anchors' foreheads.' " ... NBC says it will spend less on its Athens Olympic coverage than it did for the 2000 Sydney Games — despite nearly tripling TV hours. One belt-tightening move: NBC will bring along just 14,000 pounds of Starbucks coffee, compared with lugging 16,000 pounds to Sydney. ... With SportsCenter becoming available this week in high-definition TV, anchor Rece Davis says on-air types are nervous: "Anybody on TV who says they're not vain is lying. And you worry that viewers, instead of listening to what you're saying, will be thinking, 'Look at that zit on Davis' nose.' "